Machine for disintegrating a block of compressed fibrous and like material



Feb. 7, 1961 FLEISSNER 2,970,782

H. MACHINE FOR DISINTEGRATING A BLOCK OF COMPRESSED FIBROUS AND LIKE MATERIAL Filed Nov. '7, 1958 UI i Cd States atent- MACHINE FOR DISINTEGRATING A BLOCK OF COMPRESSED FIBROUS AND LIKE MA- TERIAL Hans Fleissner, Wolfsgartenstr. 6, Egelsbach, Germany Filed Nov. 7, 1958, Ser. No. 772,537 I Claims priority, application Germany Jan. 9, 1958 4 Claims. (Cl. 241-273) to disintegrate or separate the fibrous material layer by layer in order to avoid damage of the fibers. Methods heretofore known however proved to be very costly, time consuming, and required hand operations, moreover the separated layers have been nonuniform in regard to thlckness and other dimensions and weight.

Accordingly it is a principal object of the present invention'to provide means contributing to an efiicacious, highly economical and simplified machine for disintegratingcdmpr'essed blocks of fibrous material layer by layer and for achieving primarily uniform small pieces of fibrous material to which said blocks are reduced.

It is a further object of the invention to provide means ensuring continuous reduction of compressed fibrous ma- .terial from a compressed stack to successive layers, the layers exhibiting uniformity in thickness and other dimensions and weight. i

A still further object of the invention is to provide means affording safe separation of compressed or caked fibrous layer material within a minimum of space and at a relatively high speed.

Yet a further object of the invention is to provide means facilitating the disposition of a compressed block of fibrous material on a rotary turntable, rotatable means being provided with a plurality of tools, such as prongs arranged thereon to penetrate the uppermost layer of the block, said rotatable means being driven at substantial- ',ly greater speed than that of the turntable, thereby to separate equal pieces of fibrous material from said .block.

A still further object of the invention is to provide means supporting .the aforesaid rota-table means within a swingable frame or guard member suspended on cable or rope means to facilitate a slow descent. of said rotatable means onto said upper block layer to efiectuate a layer by layer separation.

means with said turntable during operation of said machine or, disiri-t'egrator.

' These and other objects of the invention will become further apparent from the following detailed descripton,

:reference being made to the accompanying drawing, showing a preferred embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically a top plan view of the apparatus of Fig. l.

Referring now to Figs. 1 and 2 of the attached drawing, there is disclosed a horizontally disposed turntable 2 for supporting a block or cake 1 of compressed fibrous material. Turntable 2 is rotated in unison with block 1 by means of a drive mechanism generally indicated as by 40. The latter mechanism includes a variable speed electric motor 8, which drives a horizontally disposed pinion 7, which is in mesh with a gear 9 provided for speed reduction. The gear 9 and also turntable 2 are connected to a vertical shaft 3 for unitary rotation. The shaft 3 is supported in and runs in ball bearings 4 and 5. I The fiber block reducing means 39 comprises relatively narrow rotatable means or wheel 10, which is disposed in the vertical median plane of turntable 2 such that the prongs or teeth 10a of wheel 10 engage the exposed top layer of the block of fibrous material. The wheel 10 is keyed to a horizontal shaft 11, which is rotatably sup ported within a wing-shaped, relatively thin walled cover or guard member 14 by means of ball bearings 15 and 16 mounted on opposite inner walls defining said cover member or guard 14. The frame member 14 is mounted on a transversely extending axle 20 for pivotal movement in unison with shaft 11 and wheel 10 in the aforesaid median plane. I

The axle 20 is supported by means of bearings 21 and 22 (Fig. 2) which are secured to the top ends of side walls of a collector bin 25 arranged to receive pieces 1a of loose fibrous material.

The shaft 11 passes through the front wall of cover member 14 and supports a belt pulley 41 keyed to the front end of said shaft 11. A variable speed electric motor 12 is secured to the top wall of cover member 14, and imparts counter-clockwise rotary drive (indicated by arrow 13) topulley 41, shaft 11, and operable wheel 10 via a drive pulley 42 operated by the shaft of motor 12 and pulley belt 43. The pulley 41 may be selected to be of larger diameter than pulley 42 for speed reduction.

The left end of the cover member 14 overlies wheel 10 and is arc-shaped substantially concentric with wheel 10. The cover member 14 is suspended from a Windlass or like lifting means 18 located thereabove by a cable or rope 19 tied to a lug 45 which in turn is secured to the top of guard member 14 approximately vertically above the center of the arc-shaped portion of said member 14.

The arrangement so far described contemplates three variable, though definitely predetermined and inter-related speeds. The rotary speed of pulley 41 as indicated by arrow 13 is substantially greater than that of the relatively slowly rotating turntable 2 as indicated by arrow 30, and the rate of descent of the cover member in unison with wheel 10, is substantially slower as indicated by arrow 82 than the turntable speed. The descending motion of the disintegrator mechanism or assembly 39 is occasioned by the release of the Windlass 18, which also .follows:

As the turntable 2 completes one revolution (in clockwise direction indicated by arrow 30), the descent of the fibrous block reducing mechanism 39 is relatively inconsiderable or negligible, the prongs or teeth of wheel 10 penetrate the top layer of the block of compressed fibrous material to a depth of typically two to ten centimeters, and owing to the indicated counter clockwise motion (atrow 13), become efiective to act upon and thereby disintegrate said block layer by propelling the prongs a under centrifugal action.

The released fiber material expands to normal uncompressed dimensions in view of its inherent resiliency. This action takes place continuously, owing to the'descent of the mechanism 39, so that the release of the fibers is effectuated layer by layer and in uniform manner without tearing of the fibers into shreds.

The cover member 14 is provided with an interior depthwise transversely extending concave guide member 44 of a curvature suitable to orient the released fibers ultimately downwardly into a collector bin or receptacle 25, which is provided with a level conveyor belt 26, that transports and deviates the deposited fiber material onto a second obliquely and upwardly moving conveyor belt 27 within bin 25.

For the purpose of avoiding ultimate engagement of wheel 10 with turntable 2 and consequent damage to the teeth or prongs 10a of the wheel 10, a limit or stop member 32 is secured to theinterior front wall of the guard member 14 adjacent the lower extremity thereof. Upon the descent of member 14, the stop member 32 abuts a cooperating angle bracket member 34, which may be adjustable in any conventional manner such as by bolts 84, thereby terminating the further downward movement of mechanism 39.

The described fiber material actuating apparatus is particularly characterized by its capability to separate and release compressed fiber material from a cake or block with uniformity and layer by layer, successively, thereby avoiding destruction of said fiber material. Further the apparatus admits of relatively inexpensive construction and takes up relative confined space while it operates at high speed.

From this disclosure it ensues that there has been provided according to the invention a machine characterized by means for separating and causing expansion of resilient fibrous material compressed in a block, a collector bin for reception of said separated fibrous material, means located within the confines of and for conveying the material out of said bin, a horizontally disposed turntable supporting said block, first drive means for imparting rotation to said block supported on said turntable about a central vertical axis thereof and at a first predetermined speed;

a frame overlying said collector bin and arranged for pivotal movement thereto, thereby to perform a move- 'ment approaching said block on said turntable, a prongcarrying wheel mounted on said frame for rotation arranged to act 'on and penetrate the uppermost material layer of said block; second drive means carried by said frame for rotating said wheel at a second predetermined speed substantially greater than said first speed, whereby said prongs of said wheel disintegrate and release said up ermost material layer from said block and propel the reduced fibrous material under centrifugal action in said bin.

Said material is then allowed to expand from its previously compressed state and to' assume its inherent dimenslon; means being carried by said frame for orienting said material into said bin, and means suspending said frame for gradually releasing the same with said prong-equipped wheel rotated at a third predetermined speed substantially less than said first speed toward said block, whereby said fibrous material is separated from said block layer by layer and is oriented into said bin.

Various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invendor: and it is intended that such obvious changes and modifications be embraced by the annexed claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is:

1. A system for separating resilient fibrous material from a block; comprising a collector bin, means located within the confines of and for conveying material out of said bin, a horizontally disposed rotatable turntable supporting said block and disposed adjacent said bin in side by side relationship, first drive means for imparting rotation to said block on said turntable about a vertical axis thereof and at a first predetermined speed, a cover member overlying said collector bin and pivotally mounted about a horizontal axis to perform a movement towards and away from said block on said turntable, a prongequipped wheel rotatable about a horizontal axis and mounted in said cover member for acting on and penetrating the uppermost layer of said block material, arcuate guide means carried by said cover member, second drive means carried by said cover member for rotating said wheel at a second predetermined speed substantially greater than said first speed so that the prongs of said wheel separate fibrous material from said uppermost layer of said block and propel the separated fibrous material under centrifugal action againstsaid arcuate guide means and thence into said bin therebelow, said separated material being allowed to expand and assume its inherent dimension, and means suspending said cover member for gradually lowering said cover member towards said block at a third predetermined speed substantially. less than said first speed so that said fibrous material is separated from said block layer bylayer and is propelled toward and into said bin.

2. The system according to claim 1, including cooperable stop means, respectively, secured on said cover member and on said bin to terminate the downward movement of the cover member with said prong-equipped wheel toward said block, thereby to prevent interference of said cover member with said turntable and damage of the latter by said wheel.

3. An apparatus for separating and causing expansion of resilient fibrous materialfrom a compressed block of said material; comprising a bin, a rotatable turntable supporting said block, said turntable being adjacent said bin, a cover member pivotally mounted on said bin and above said block, a prong-carrying wheel mounted for rotation in said cover member and arranged to project therebeyond for engaging said block at the uppermost portion of said block, drivemeans carried by said cover member for rotating said wheel so that the prongs of said wheel loosen and separate said uppermost fibrous material portion from said block and propel said fibrous material through centrifugal action into said bin, so as to allow separated resilient fibrous material to expand, arcuate guide means associated within cover member for guiding said separated material into said bin, means for pivotally moving said covermember together with said prongcarrying wheel toward and away from said block, and means operatively connected with said bin tocontinuously discharge said separated and expanded fibrous material from said bin.

4. An apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said cover member and said arcuate guide means conform in contour to said prong-carrying wheel and substantially encompass said wheel except for a lower portion thereof.

References Cited'in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 956,792 Beskow et al. May3, 1910 2,219,285 Allen Oct. 29, 1940 2,301,088 Stahl Nov. 3, 1942 2,446,345 Snow Aug. 3, 1948 2,833,392 Meissner May 6, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 3,419 Great Britain of' 1869 774,311 Great Britain 'May 8, 1957 

